EYE FOR AN EYE

Special Forces operative Dewey Andreas is out for vengeance after a botched assassination attempt kills the woman he loves in the latest from Coes (The Last Refuge, 2012, etc.).

While on vacation with his fiancee, U.S. National Security Advisor Jessica Tanzer, in Argentina, Dewey is targeted by a Chinese hit squad. He escapes the assassin’s bullet only to have it find his wife-to-be instead. In response, Dewey uses his training as a skilled Delta operator to hunt down the man behind the failed hit, China’s minister of state security. The carnage caused by Dewey’s quest for vengeance stretches across Europe and into Asia. Depth is added as the storyline fluctuates between bloody shootouts among multinational paramilitary operators and tense political negotiations with heads of state, covert operations directors and numerous ambassadors. A sense of realism emerges when Dewey’s mission is complicated by America’s primary lender and source of future financial security, China. The threat of Islamist radicals pales in comparison to the threat of the People’s Bank of China, which is likened to “a poisonous snake” lurking in tall grass as it grows stronger.

At a time when America's exceptionalism is hotly contested, this is a fine example of an exceptional American hero story.